Jack Kemp

Jack French Kemp (13 July 1935-2 May 2009) was the US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 13 February 1989 to 20 January 1993 under George H.W. Bush, succeeding Samuel Pierce and preceding Henry Cisneros. Kemp served in the US House of Representatives as a representative from New York (R) from 1971 to 1989, succeeding Max McCarthy and preceding Bill Paxon, and he was well known for being one of the fathers of Ronald Reagan's economic policies, known as "supply-side economics". Kemp's economic views were conservative, but he had many liberal views, as he supported gay rights (albeit not their right to teach), affirmative action, free trade, and rights for illegal immigrants and their families, and he championed inner city Republicans. He was Bob Dole's running mate in the 1996 election, and Kemp was called a "domestic policy czar" for his skills while serving as Secretary of HUD.

Biography
Jack French Kemp was born in Los Angeles, California on 13 July 1935, and he attended Occidental College, where he played football. From 1958 to 1962, Kemp served in the US Army reserves, and he played football from 1957 to 1969, with his longest stretch on a team being his stay with the Buffalo Bills from 1962 to 1969. During the 1960s, Kemp began shaping his "bleeding-heart conservative" views, and he worked on Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign and Ronald Reagan's failed 1966 California gubernatorial campaign. Kemp spoke in favor of ideals and principles instead of the US Republican Party's views, and he campaigned on family values, patriotism, sports, and defense as a John F. Kennedy throwback. Kemp had some liberal views, as he supported affirmative action, immigrant rights, and homosexual civil liberties, although he did not believe that gays should be allowed to become teachers.

Congressional career


In 1971, Kemp was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Republican representative from New York, and he championed economic growth, free markets, free trade, tax simplification, lower tax rates, the gold standard, civil rights, and enterprise zones, while he opposed communism and abortion. Kemp was more of a libertarian and less of a conservative, as he supported minorities, women, blue-collar workers, and organized labor, and he therefore became a key member of Ronald Reagan's inner circle. Kemp's supply-side economic theories led to Reagan adopting these policies as a part of his "Reaganomics" program, which rapidly increased national debt while temporarily increasing the wealth of America's middle and upper classes.

Domestic policy czar
Kemp was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Reagan's successor George H.W. Bush after a failed run for the Republican nomination for president in 1988, and he supported an anti-drug offensive that included banning firearms in public housing. Kemp was called a "domestic policy czar" by 81 of the 166 Republican congressmen in a late 1991 letter to Bush, which demanded that Kemp be given more domestic authority. Bush was insulted, and Kemp was surprised that he held his position in the government for the duration of Bush's term in office. In 1992, he was the star of the Republican National Convention, but he endorsed Steve Forbes as the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, disappointing many Americans, who wanted Kemp to run for the presidency. Bob Dole named Kemp as his vice-presidential running mate, but they lost with 40.7% of the vote; Dole and Kemp were not an effective team, as Dole opposed Kemp's tax cuts, and Kemp was forced to support barring the children of illegal immigrants from public scohols and the end of affirmative action programs. Kemp became a political commentator during the 2000s, and he fell ill with cancer in 2009. He died at his Bethesda, Maryland home on 2 May 2009 at the age of 73, and he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.